EVERTON will today discover the extent of top scorer Tim Cahill’s knee injury with fears the Australian faces up to three months on the sidelines.

The midfielder underwent scans yesterday on the injury sustained during the weekend defeat to Aston Villa.

Everton will assess the results later today, and they are expected to confirm Cahill has suffered medial ligament damage in his right knee, almost certainly ruling him out for between six and 12 weeks.

Cahill sustained the injury after being involved in an accidental collision with team-mate Lee Carsley midway through the first half at Goodison on Saturday.

There were initial concerns the midfielder had suffered a broken leg or damaged cruciate ligaments, but they have since been allayed.

Nevertheless, the loss of leading goalscorer Cahill, who has netted seven times this season, is a bitter blow for Everton manager David Moyes, who must hope the player demonstrates similar powers of recovery to those shown in recovering from another knee problem earlier this year.

Cahill suffered a partial tear of the posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in April but returned to fitness less than six weeks later to play for Australia in the World Cup.

Cahill’s setback added injury to insult for Everton following the 1-0 loss to Villa at Goodison Park on Saturday.

It was their third successive defeat by that scoreline inside a week, and Phil Neville admitted Moyes’ side were simply not good enough on the day to overcome the Midlanders.

"Three 1-0 defeats in a week is very disappointing," said the defender.

"It is not what we expected and not what we wanted.

"There were a lot of disappointed faces in the dressing room.

"We were thrown out of whack a little bit when Tim went off but we have got good players that can come on.

"From a personal point of view I didn’t play as well as I should have done and we didn’t play as well as we should do as a team.

"It is nobody else’s fault, we just didn’t play well enough.

"There were some good performances but there were some bad ones as well.

"In order to get back up the league we need all 11 players to be at it all the time."

Meanwhile, reports in Canada have claimed Vancouver Whitecaps are ready to invite Everton to play a friendly next July.

Aston Villa have also been mooted as possible opponents for the North American outfit, who are keen to arrange a high-profile fixture after hosting the Fifa Under-20 World Cup next summer.